The present invention relates to a method of displaying 2-dimensional data, and more particularly to a method of visualizing a time sequence of vector information associated with data that may be referenced to a unit or normalized figure, like a circle.
Currently display techniques overlap time sequential data on the same display, making it difficult to distinguish changes that occur over time or to display all the useful data, i.e., they either don't provide an effective means to visualize 2-dimensional data that has more than one value on an axis or don't provide an effective means to identify the time sequencing. Constellation diagrams, Radar diagrams, Spectrograms and waterfall diagrams all have difficulty displaying this data in a way that patterns may be detected.
Constellation diagrams are a current technique for displaying 2-dimensional data, like digital modulation of a radio frequency (RF) signal. The problem with the Constellation diagrams is that all information is plotted on the same 2-dimensional axis and the time sequence is difficult to distinguish. The best approach for determining time sequence is to use a marker that may be manipulated along the time sequence of the display data. This is time consuming and not very effective for determining time related patterns.
Radar diagrams are similar to Constellation diagrams and have similar limitations when trying to address time sequencing.
Spectrograms are another current technique for displaying a time sequence of 2-dimensional data, like trace data. The problem with Spectrogram displays are that it requires that there is one value that represents all the useful data for any given frequency or position in a displayed trace “line”, i.e., there is one axis for which there is a unique value for each measurement on that axis. The information presented in a Constellation diagram is not readily mapped to a Spectrogram-type display without significant confusion or loss of information because there is no axis for which this is true, i.e., there may be two values for each measurement on a particular axis in the Constellation diagram.
Waterfall diagrams are yet another current technique to display a time sequence of 2-dimensional data, similar to Spectrograms. Unfortunately this display technique also uses a surface or sequence of lines to represent all the useful information. Since this has the same limitations on data translation as a Spectrogram, it too doesn't readily translate the information from a Constellation diagram without significant confusion or loss of information.
What is desired is a method for displaying a time sequence of 2-dimensional data that distinguishes changes that occur over time while displaying all the useful data.